Dam the rivers; damn the people: Hydroelectric development and resistance in Amazonian Brazil

Abstract

This paper analyzes the history and consequences of two large scale hydroelectric projects in Amazonian Brazil. The argument makes three points. First, environmental impacts of such projects are inseparable from issues of human rights, regional economic development, and social justice. The implication of this view is that “another” development, something quite different from the industrial ideal of “modernization”, is necessary in Amazonia and elsewere.

Second, analytical fragmentation of problems into specialist concerns with such topics as “ecology” (often only meaning wildlife), “environment” (often concerned only with soil erosion and regional climate), and “human rights” (sometimes only focusing on the rights of indigenous people, not small farmer migrants tempted to settle in such areas) is mirrored by a fragmented, and therefore weak, resistance to hydroelectric development. The paper traces the early signs of a more unified resistance movement capable of overcoming these special interests and fragmentation.

Third, the paper provides data on an economic monstrosity. The Balbina dam was begun in 1981, had cost $ 700 million by 1988, will not be viable withoutanother $ 700 million of design correction, andeven then will not provide enough electricity for Manaus city: this is a monument to an apparent inability to learn from history.